Your Name

For the next while, Li Guanqi remained completely absorbed in comprehending that strike. Meanwhile, Ye Feng lay unconscious for two full days. Two days later, Ye Feng slowly drifted awake, only to see a silhouette practicing the sword inside the cave. Having been in a coma the entire time, Ye Feng's wounds had healed somewhat, but his injuries remained exceptionally severe. Seeing him awake, Li Guanqi instantly flashed over to his side and asked with concern, "How are you feeling? Any better?" Seeing Li Guanqi safe and sound, Ye Feng still had no idea what had transpired. His memories stopped at the moment when over twenty Core Formation cultivators had encircled and attacked them. His head throbbing with a splitting ache, Ye Feng spoke in a weak voice, "Boss, did we escape?" Li Guanqi did not know whether to laugh or cry upon hearing this, and proceeded to recount everything that had happened over the past few days. Ye Feng's eyes widened in shock as he listened. "A battle between Soul Formation masters?! And you were even captured, Boss?!" "Boss, you're damn lucky to be alive! By the way, what happened to that female cultivator? Did she let you go?!" Li Guanqi gave a somewhat sheepish shrug and pointed toward a corpse deep within the cave. "Uh... well... you can't really say she let me go, either." When Ye Feng spotted the corpse, he nearly jumped out of his skin, his eyes wide with utter terror. It was glaringly obvious: she had not let Li Guanqi go—he had run her through with his sword. Ye Feng swallowed hard, whispering in disbelief, "Good grief... you killed her?" "Yeah, killed her." "Didn't you say she planted cold poison in you before she passed out?" "And she's a Soul Formation grandmaster! Even if she died, what about her origin spirit?!" Ye Feng spoke with undisguised dread. Had he not seen the body with his own eyes, it would have been near impossible to believe. After all, a starved camel was still larger than a horse, let alone a cautious Soul Formation cultivator. Even if such a person's physical body perished and her heart stopped beating, an out-of-body origin spirit could have easily possessed Li Guanqi. Regarding that matter, Li Guanqi deflected, merely claiming he happened to have the means to purge the cold poison she had planted. As for her origin spirit, he insisted he had never seen it. He would not breathe a word about the sword spirit to anyone. It was his greatest secret; he could bind them by Heavenly Dao oaths regarding the sword casket, but when it came to the sword spirit's existence, whether out of selfishness or other considerations, he did not want a single soul to know. Since Ye Feng was awake, Li Guanqi simply took out the healing pills he had found in Cheng Yun's storage ring. Looking at the grade-four healing pill placed in his palm, Ye Feng said incredulously, "Boss, don't tell me that not only was her origin spirit missing, but even the imprint on her storage ring was gone too!" Ye Feng's gaze was riddled with suspicion, his voice jumping an octave. Li Guanqi dug his heels in. "Gone. It just wasn't there, anyway." In truth, when Li Guanqi had inspected the contents of the storage ring the day before, he had been utterly astounded. Never had he imagined a Soul Formation cultivator could be this wealthy. Converted to low-grade spirit stones, the spirit stones inside amounted to a staggering ten million! Converted into high-grade spirit stones, that was a whole thousand! High-grade spirit stones! A single one was worth ten thousand low-grade spirit stones. Even Ye Feng could not help but gulp when he heard the numbers. Back then, his clan had nearly been cleaned out when forced to pay a compensation of just one million spirit stones, and their business had spanned generations to amass that wealth. Yet now, lying before them was ten times the savings of his family's generations combined. Ye Feng curled his lip and muttered, "No wonder they say murder and arson bring golden belts. Dammit, you couldn't see this many spirit stones even after cultivating an entire lifetime in a sect!" Moreover, the storage ring held numerous priceless medicinal pills, talismans, enchanted robes, and the like. Two white drifting-cloud robes caught Li Guanqi's eye. He took them out and handed one over. "One for each of us." Ye Feng's eyes lit up the moment he saw the robe. He moved to take it, but accidentally pulled on his wounds. The freshly scabbed cuts tore open at once. With his hand still reaching out into midair, Ye Feng collapsed stiffly onto the ground. Thud! "Dammit! That hurts!" Li Guanqi chided helplessly, "Heal yourself first, you idiot. It's not like I'm taking it away." Realizing the sense in that, Ye Feng swallowed the grade-four pill and sat cross-legged on the ground to tend to his injuries. The efficacy of a grade-four pill spoke for itself; before long, Ye Feng's wounds began mending at a visible pace. Yet Li Guanqi could not shake the feeling that Ye Feng had looked preoccupied ever since waking up. Not knowing whether it was just his imagination, Li Guanqi shook his head, thinking he might just be overthinking things. Since there was nothing else to do, he stood up and began practicing his sword. Afraid of making too much noise, however, he held the blade with a loose, gentle grip. He had also noticed that when the sword spirit wielded Red Lotus, the lotus on its hilt blossomed into full bloom, unleashing vastly more terrifying power. Sensing his thoughts, the sword spirit spoke softly, "That is the second stage of Sword Ruins' power." "Put it out of your mind for now. You'll be lucky if you can master it before ascending." Li Guanqi twitched his lips, musing inwardly, *It seems this second stage really is difficult... Even she says so.* "Sword spirit, don't you have a name?" The sword spirit paused slightly, asking in return, "Why ask my name?" Leaning against the stone wall, Li Guanqi looked out toward the faint moonlight outside the cave and said softly, "I just feel that everyone ought to have a name of their own—be it a spirit or a human." The sword spirit floated down onto the sword casket, raising a hand to brush the strands of hair from her forehead behind her ear. After a long silence, her ethereal voice finally drifted out. "I do, but the current you cannot know it." "Grow stronger, youth. Strong enough to make this world tremble." "When that time comes, I will naturally tell you my name." "Only then will you be worthy of knowing it." Having heard those words, Li Guanqi surprisingly offered no retort. This surprised the sword spirit as well. In her experience, Li Guanqi was someone with a rather sharp tongue. Ordinarily, he would have fired back a few retorts, yet today he did no such thing. Instead, he spoke with absolute earnestness. "If someone else said that, I would definitely think they were blowing hot air. But if it's you, I believe every word." The sword spirit lifted her head slightly, staring blankly at the youth gazing up at the heavens. A captivating smile unconsciously curved the corner of her lips. She slowly rose and stretched her waist. Under the moonlight, her near-flawless curves appeared exceptionally enchanting. Turning slowly, the woman glanced sideways toward Li Guanqi, parting her vermilion lips to murmur in a voice only the two of them could hear: "I look forward to that day!"